Yen slides to three-year low versus euro after BOJ

The yen fell to the weakest in three years against the euro after Bank of Japan policy makers affirmed a plan to double the monetary base over two years and their statement showed no concern about rising bond yields.

Japan’s currency declined versus most of its major peers after a government report showed the trade deficit swelled more in April than analysts forecast. The dollar dropped for a third day against the euro before Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke addresses Congress on the outlook for the economy. The franc fell to the weakest since May 2011 versus the euro after Swiss National Bank President Thomas Jordan said an adjustment of the currency’s cap was possible.

“We’ve seen quite a broad move higher in the dollar, and dollar-yen is higher,” Daragh Maher, a London-based currency strategist at HSBC Holdings Plc, said in a telephone interview. “Bernanke might toe a reasonably middle-of-the-road line, but that kind of neutral stance would just point to a continuation of the trend, which is for a push higher in the dollar.”

The yen lost 0.7% to 133.23 per euro at 9:22 a.m. in New York after depreciating to 133.30, the weakest since January 2010. Japan’s currency dropped 0.5% to 102.96 per dollar after declining to 103.31 on May 17, the least since October 2008. The dollar fell 0.3% to $1.2939 per euro.

Flexible Manner

BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda told reporters in Tokyo that the central bank will conduct its debt purchases in a flexible manner, and that the recent volatility in government securities isn’t yet affecting the economy. The central bank will expand the supply of money in the economy by 60 trillion yen ($582 billion) to 70 trillion yen a year, as pledged in April, the BOJ said.

“The yen appears to have got its first push lower from disappointing trade data that showed the weaker yen trend still has some way to go before Japan can correct its widening trade deficit,” said Eimear Daly, a currency analyst at Monex Europe Ltd. in London. “A failure of the BOJ minutes to mention rising yield levels allowed the yen to move further.”

Japanese exports rose 3.8% from a year earlier, the Finance Ministry said, less than the median 5.4% estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The trade deficit expanded to 879.9 billion yen, the widest in three months.

The yen has tumbled 13% this year, the worst performer of 10 developed-market currencies tracked by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes. The euro advanced 2.7% and the dollar climbed 4.9%.

The greenback fell against the euro before Bernanke testifies to the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. The Fed is buying $85 billion a month in Treasury and mortgage debt to push down borrowing costs and spur growth.